


Exile Vilify

by kusege



Category: Don't Starve (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure Mode, Epilogue, Gen, Minor existentialism by way of throned dialogue, Triumphant Wilson - Freeform, lots of discussion of science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 19:54:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21524257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kusege/pseuds/kusege
Summary: “Well, you found me. Was it worth it?”Wilson’s Epilogue speech.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 74





	Exile Vilify

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains gratuitous Portal references, because I’m an uncreative writer who steals dialogue. This fic is also directly inspired by this tumblr post (https://meohmei.tumblr.com/post/189214779982/small-headcanon-i-have-of-what-wouldve-happened) and meohmei’s art of throned Wilson. Go show them some love!

The statues fell, crumbling into useless marble dust, and then rose again, taking a new shape. Eerily smooth stone, nitre packed deep within the base, gold within the head, glinting out in bright clear eyes. It was much more useful than its predecessor, almost a boon when destroyed.

The world trembled, shaking itself out, an invisible tug of war influencing the lands, resources shifting from side to side, still never enough, but sometimes coming close to prosperity, other times pitiful nothing. One survivor simply shook his head on the third repetition of this pattern, wondering when the new King would wear out. The oscillation would never last, and indeed, the amplitudes decreased, extremes becoming closer and closer until one could barely tell any motion was being undertaken.

Time passed, and the Constant scarcely changed.

The doors remained.

—

“Well, you found me. Was it worth it?”

The man was... almost pitiful. Nothing like his statues, the godsend in early days and summer that they were, triumphant grin long gone and replaced with a dazed, exhausted stare. His hair was stark white, clothing halfway ragged, wrists bound tight to the arms of the Throne- a sharp contrast to what they’d seen of him through the doors, hair jet black and rippling with shadows, impeccable suit beneath a pristine white coat, the gaze of an indifferent and smug researcher, looking down on a dying lab rat.

His face cracked apart into something like a smile. “Checkmate, I suppose. Never was much for chess, but I can hardly control what things are called here.”

The lab rat stared back.

“If it was up to me, I’d call this the conclusion. But it isn’t.”

There was next to nothing around- darkness, crumbling stone walls, a gramophone playing some jaunty tune. 

“I... think I’ve done all the tests on you I’ll manage.” The lab rat looked at him blankly, and he did not even have the decency to try to smile again. “Or.. maybe I’ve been fully understood by Them. Can’t be that much to study, anymore.”

The gramophone played on.

“I tried to fight. You might remember how that went.”

The lab rat blinked at him, fiddled with the divining rod.

“They promised me knowledge, you know. I knew so little.” His eyes met theirs for the first time, and they flinched- they held nothing but fog and haze, promising a rusted-over, frozen brain. “Now I think I might know too much.”

They bit their cheek, and his face twisted, seeming to try to remember a long-forgotten expression. “Hard to work when you can’t focus for even a moment. Hard to get anything really done.”

There was a beat, and the lab rat walked over, turned the gramophone off. As the song ground to a halt, he went limp. “Oh  god,  I thought he was exaggerating...” he whispered, staring up at the ceiling. The lab rat looked up too. There was nothing but Darkness, Void.

“But I can’t fight the universal laws. No one can.”

The lab rat did nothing.

“I can’t change the foundations of this world, much less the surface. I’ve learned that much.”

The lab rat stalked up to him and slapped him across the face. He just smiled, not even wincing. “Subject.... shows anger when confronted with... with failure.”

They hit him again. 

“Don’t even try.... I’ve tested it... extensively. The damage you’re doing is negligible.”

They turned around, gripping the divining rod in their hands, face twisted in fury. He smiled, empty of any true joy. “I don’t know why this is how it is. I don’t know much about Them.”

The lab rat did nothing.

“I’ve asked, I’ve tried to study Them. At best, I got nothing. At worst.....” He took a heaving breath, the first he’d taken since they arrived. “... there’s a reason I haven’t tried recently.”

One of his hands released their weak grip on the Throne, gestured vaguely. “Definition of insanity, and all that. Although, I might as well be.”

The lab rat sat, back to him, cross-legged. His hand returned to its place. “Well, you’re in exile now. Same as me, here, with Them.“

They turned their head, looked at him, glared.

“Or... well, I’m sure you know where that’s supposed to go at this point.” He nodded at the divining rod. “Prior evidence suggests such.”

They rose, turned the gramophone back on, and stormed off, lighting a torch as they went. He sighed. “That... is about the response I expected.”

Time passed, and they returned. He looked at them, managed to smile again.

“There really is no other way out.”

The gramophone played on.

“That’s not me talking. It’s just Science.”

The lab rat stared at him. He stared back.

“That’s all there is to say.”


End file.
